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Hi, I'm Joris Dekkers, and my passion for writing has greatly increased ever since I've started reading books. I'm also known as Dekker, ZWATTUH_DEKKER, BaD_BiSH and BoW4GloRy. I've been playing Age of Empires for 3 years now and a lot of people helped me get better at the game (including Spain, Tank, Pino, and East Paladin). Now I feel it is my duty to give the players something back. I present to you a legendary article by I3loodI2ooK, seeped in wisdom
When the Age of Empires Expansion Pack came out (The Conquerors), one of the newly added civilizations were The Huns. After a short time of trying to learn the new civilizations, it became obvious that the Huns were one of the more interesting civilizations to play. The Huns became loved by many players because of one tremendous advantage; they don't need houses. In every aspect of the game, a new skill was created: speed. Speed is, and I say it many times to my students, the key to winning every battle, especially when playing a Hun war.
This guide will inform you about the Hun civilization the most popular civilization match-up in DM today. After the new patch the Huns also became powerful in RM game play, but in this article will only be talking about the DM aspects. The principle aim of this article, or better named 'Learning Campaign', is to teach the Huns as a civilization, and the Hun War. I hope that by reading this article you will learn a lot by these lessons, and improve your style of game play.
Remember, this guide isn't only meant for 'rooks' or 'newbies' but also for more experienced players, experts, and super experts. Although a rook needs to learn everything, a super-expert still isn't perfect and can still learn from others. I'm sure there are some things in my article that even for the best can learn from, and I'm sure there're many things they can teach me in return. Good luck!
Step 1: The Basics
The Hun Bonuses
The Huns don't need houses, but start with 100 less wood.
Cavalry Archers cost -30% in the Imperial Age.
Trebuchets have +30% accuracy.
Team Bonus: Stables work 20% faster.
Unique Unit: The Tarkan
-The First bonus is the biggest advantage a player can get. Imagine yourself having no need for houses. This means that (a) you never have population limit problems due to housing shortages and (b) all your villagers are building military buildings like Archery Ranges, Barracks, Stables, Castles, etc. You are constantly making new units, and this gives you an enormous speed advantage over your opponent who does need houses, it's simply fantastic!
-The Second bonus, Cavalry Archers cost -30% is also a nice one in my opinion, especially when running out of gold and food (that you spent on the paladins). With this bonus you can build one of the strongest defending units without running out of gold fast.
-Trebuchets have +30% more accuracy than a regular trebuchet. Normally trebuchets shoot and miss 20% of their shots. Though with this bonus, the Huns Trebuchet will almost always hit their target. To me this bonus is okay, but when I use Huns I make more use of the Rams, simply because they are cheap and strong. But we will talk about that later in the Hun war section.
-Team Bonus: Stables work 20% faster. This is a very valuable bonus to me, especially in the earlier days when AoC was just born. The rush that came over from the Franks in AoK, was still very popular and powerful and the Huns were able to do it faster than the Franks When rushing with Paladins, you have two big advantages: you don't need houses and Paladins are produced 20% faster. I think it is clear how this allows for a much faster rush.
-The Unique Unit: The Huns unique unit is the Tarkan. This unit has been underestimated big time. The question that people ask is why use Tarkans when Paladins appear to be stronger in every way. Tarkans, however aren't weaker than Paladins in every way though. When I'm playing Huns, or a Hun war, I sometimes make more use out of Tarkans than Paladins. You'd say, "Why on earth would you do that?" Well, there are three reasons. Tarkans have, just like a Paladin, an advantage vs. Archers and they cost 15 gold less than a Paladin. They are produced faster than a Paladin and finally their strength vs. buildings. They destroy buildings (trebuchets and siege units included) extremely fast. It is often smart to build Castles somewhere near gold, or at an important place of a map, to pressure the enemy's flank, or simply to get map control. When you are willing to raid, it's smart to push out Tarkans and kill as many villagers as you can.
Step 2: Working on Civilization and Unit Attributes
What do the Huns Have?
-When you want to become a real expert in Huns, you need to know every aspect of the civilization. This is more important than you think. Knowing all the units, technologies and economic attributes is a great advantage. I will explain to you which units counter the other units, and which units don't. If you know all that, you will be winning a lot more, simply by good army control and smart play.
The Halberdier: A Halberdier is a very useful unit as they counter Paladins, War Elephants and Hussars. A Halberdier lacks strength vs. Archers, Hand Cannoneers, Cavalry Archers, Scorpions, Champions, Teutonic Knights, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, Samurai, Throwing Axemen, and Plumed Archers. The best counter against a Halberdier is a Cataphract. Every hit that comes from this unit will also hit nine other units, an unbelievable bonus. By the way a Cataphract counters all infantry (I'm not sure about the Elite Teutonic Knight though).
The Two-Handed Swordsman: This unit is a non-upgraded Champion and is not really popular in Huns wars. Of course I understand this and I also don't make much use of this unit. The Two-Handed Swordsmen isn't that bad, in fact he rocks against buildings, especially Castles (bonus), and is more resistant to Monks. Also this unit counters the Halberdier and is more useful than a Halberdier versus a Cavalry Archer, but I wouldn't make this unit often, actually almost never. It costs a lot of food, and you don't even get a Champion (which I even don't prefer). To counter pikes you should make Archers rather than Two-Handed Swordsmen. In conclusion the Two-Handed Swordsmen is most often useless.
The Skirmisher: This unit has been categorized under "Cheap Units". I believe this unit is the most non-expensive unit there is. The Skirmisher isn't that bad though, it counters every Archer and Cavalry Archer, without costing gold. Also it counters units like The Mangudai, The Longbowman, Plumed Archers, The Mameluke, Hand Cannoneers (including the Turkish Janissary), Halberdier (when the skirmishers outnumber them), and the Conquistador. I don't think the Skirmisher counters every Archer, for example the Chu Ko Nu, or the Arbalest because of their fast rate shooting. But, we have to stay in reality and not only look onto the positive things. A Skirmisher is just too weak to pass for a good unit. Imagine three Paladins verse thirty skirmishers: the Paladins will win. Or two Elephants against 35 Skirmishers, the Elephants will win. Hussars, Onagers and Scorpions also counter Skirmishers, one throw of balls from an Onager will kill a whole group of Skirmishers. Almost all infantry (who normally suck against Archers) will beat a Skirmisher, just because of its lack of attack. The best infantry that counters the Skirmisher is the Eagle Warrior, or a Huskarl.
The Crossbowman: This unit can be compared to the Two-Handed Swordsman, also a non-fully upgraded unit and also generally quite useless. Frankly, I have never seen a player use a crossbowman yet, maybe it's nice to try-out its skills sometime. The Crossbowman counters Infantry, especially a Halberdier, and it counters the Heavy Cavalry Archer, it's also okay against Mamelukes and Skirmishers, but that's it. All the other units counter the Crossbowman. When this unit was upgraded to an Arbalest it was used a lot more in my eyes, same with the Two-Handed Swordsman, changing into a Champion. But no civilization is perfect, and this balance makes the game more enjoyable.
The Cavalry Archer: In my opinion this is the most valuable unit, after the Paladin, the Huns have. The main reason is of course the low costs on gold (30% less than normal). In my Hun war article I will tell you how to combine the Cavalry Archer with other units and how to use this unit. But for now let me tell you its weaknesses and strengths. The Cavalry Archer is, as almost every archer, a defensive unit. It counters Pikemen, and all other infantry except the almighty Huskarl. A Cavalry Archer is not bad at countering a Mameluke, but the Mameluke is stronger in the end (a Mameluke takes out almost every unit). Also a Heavy Cavalry Archer takes out scorpions (when spread out) and when having a lot (and micromanaged) they may take out some Paladins. Generally though, a Cavalry Archer is no match for a Paladin (especially a bloodlined one). Later on in the Hun war article, I will explain why the Siege Ram also kind of counters (in a different way though) the Cavalry Archer. The best way when using Huns, and you want the most effect with a Cavalry Archer, is to combine it with Pikemen or Paladins.
The Paladin! As u see on the (!), this is the most popular unit, not only for the Huns but also throughout Age of Empires DM. The Paladin of the Huns is bloodlined, which means it will live longer. The Paladin counters, after the War Elephant and the Mameluke, the most units. All Archers, all infantry (except halberdiers), and (when you spread them) all siege units (even Heavy Scorpions can't take out mass paladins anymore, because of the bloodlines). The units that can take out the Paladin (only when massed in large groups) are (numbered from 1 to 7 from heaviest counter to fewest): 1. The Mameluke, all Paladins will die to its enormous power. 2. The War Elephant, these animals are just too strong, even a Frankish Paladin won't have a chance. 3. The Teutonic Knight, a unique unit that has been a bit forgotten, but still is one of the heaviest counters against all infantry and the paladin. 4. The Pikeman, this cheap unit counters a Paladin a lot, but for instance: nine Pikemen can't take out six Paladins. 5. The Aztec Champion, maybe this comes a bit unpredictable, but I have tested it out with some people, and we were surprised of the power of this Champion. 6. Elite Janissary, when they are in big groups (also the Turkish Hand Cannoneer) they are, with there 22 attack, also able to counter a Paladin. 7. The Heavy Scorpion, I know I've just said the Paladin counters the Scorpion, and they do, but when the Scorpion is massed into a group of 50 all together constantly hitting the Paladins (and with help of a lag), the Paladin has a small chance. The Paladin always has been used to rush, and still people rush with Paladins. They won't make an 8 stable rush, but with 1 or 2 to kill villagers. It's also very effective to raid with Paladins, because they are very fast. As you can see, the Paladin is a very all-rounded unit, and is my favorite unit with the Huns.
The Hussar: This unit is actually hidden behind the Paladin, and has only been used when running out of gold, and running out of gold (especially in 1v1, when you can't trade) is very common. The Hussar is the best alternative to the Paladin if you need to kill enemy Archers or raid his town. This unit costs 80 food, and no gold or wood, so it's kind of cheap, but remember food is very important in 1v1, you'll have to hold some food to make villagers. When we talk about counters, it's the same for Hussars as it is for Paladins, but the Paladins are stronger, and much more effective than a Hussar is of course, so only make hussars when you have 0 gold, otherwise just build Paladins, they rock!
The Scorpion: A non-upgraded unit and very expensive (75 wood and 75 gold). I say do not use it. The Huns have perfect human military, therefore they do not need these monsters. A Heavy Scorpion would be okay, but these Scorpions just lack enough hit points and attack to be strong enough for use. I have one piece of advice, do not use this unit, it's a waste of resources.
The Mangonel: less than an Onager or Siege Onager. Same goes for this unit as the Scorpion, just don't use it. With only 40 attack it sucks, and they are very expensive. One Paladin would completely massacre eight Mangonels. Don't use this unit. I beg you
The Siege Ram: After the patch these powerful "machines" became more and more important. When I saw Cows using the rams in Huns war, and also saw that all the Cavalry Archers shot at it, I completely fell in love with it. Also the Ram loses one hit point vs. a Bombard Tower, I mean how tiny can it be! This Ram also rocks verses buildings and Castles. I use it a lot. Though of course, the weakness of a ram is big, it has no attack against units, so it can only attack buildings. The Ram can resist a long time against Archers, but they will only last a short time against infantry and Paladins.
Petards: Petards are the most unknown unit for every civ as it is almost never used. I can tell you that they are very effective vs buildings and especially walls. A wall gets destroyed much faster by a petard than for instance a treb or a siege ram. Though, the petards is very weak vs ranged unit, but can help in a very large fight with hundreds of military units, and where you cannot oversee the petard that could surprise you. When he does hit a group of units, he will explode doing area damage to all the surrounding units. Their efficiency can be very high, when controlled well.
Economy
-Although we get 20,000 wood and food, 10,000 gold, and 5000 stone for free, it all ends too soon. That is why you need an Economy. A good economy will require about 110 to 130 villagers, especially in the long games. I usually start to build up my economy as fast as possible, but don't set it up too early as it will spoil your pop-limit when you are in the middle of the fight. At that time, there is a need for as many military units as possible. Never "just" set up an economy. I always first think of my strategy and set my economy accordingly. A little example, I start with barracks, and later on Archery Ranges, I know that I will need a lot of wood, and less food. So after 5 minutes, I start with building up to two Town Centers on wood, and two Town Centers on the main gold.
Mining Gold: I usually put two Town Centers at my main gold as fast as possible. It's also smart to build a Castle near that main gold, so your enemy will have trouble reaching it. Only do this when you haven't sold or don't plan on selling stone, because you may need your stone for Castles somewhere else. Gold is mainly used in the beginning of the fight. Making more gold units than your opponent (which are stronger than non-gold units) means you will defeat him. Getting a lot of gold units out early means getting that gold early, so it is clear why a strong gold economy early in the game is important
Chopping Wood: When you have run out of wood, you are dead. Most people (a lot of new-school experts) only make Town Centers near large forests. However, they forget that building a Lumbercamp as well will shorten the distance of travel for the Villagers and therefore increase the rate of gathering. It's simple, when you put a Town Center near a big forest and the game is still going on after 30 minutes of game play, the villagers should be at 50% chopping percentage of the total forest so they will have to walk miles. If you put a Lumbercamp near the forest the Villagers won't have to walk as far and will stock up your wood pile faster than normal. It's important when you make a lot of buildings and Archers, that cost wood, to gather wood as fast as gold. Two or three Town Centers at the forests is a good idea. Make sure to spread the Town Centers out as much as possible for two reasons. 1. You'll get a bit of map control, and 2. The Villagers don't walk over each others feet. These are just small things, but remember small things could have the biggest influences on the game.
Farming Food: Without food you are dead. I think it's better to have 9000 food, and 0 wood, rather than having 0 food and 9000 wood because with only food you can make Hussars and Villagers whereas with only wood you cannot make anything. The importance of villagers is of course huge. With villagers you can collect the wood and other resources you need and they only cost 50 food.
Well, how the hell do I get food? Where? And When? For experts and inters it's easy to make food, however it requires more skill than many of you think. When I'm playing with Huns, food is the last thing I make, for two reasons. First it costs a lot of time, because you'll have to check your Villagers every time to see if they are at work, or if the are idling. Second, wood is easier to gather than food, you just make a Town Center at a random forest, and you click the flag (point where you want your Villagers working at), queue 15 villagers and you're done. With food you'll have to wait for those Villagers, and then hold shift and create 15 farms. When you have 15 farms (put them close together) take your Villagers and make a Mill. When the Mill has been created, your Villagers will go to work themselves. It's also possible to make a Town Center, and farms around it, and then queue 15 villagers, and set the gather points on the center farm. They will walk themselves to a free farm, that hasn't been made yet.
Mining Stone: A lot of old school players (like Reznor, illusionS, Fossil etc.) always made one or two Town Centers for stone. They made them for two reasons. First of all if they had a market and sold some stone, they became low on stone. The other reason they did it was to make Castles and Town Centers. With a Castle you can easily get map control and raid the opponent with the unique unit of the civilization. In this case the unique unit is the Tarkan. A castle is actually a perfect attack "unit" and a great defensive unit. You could compare a Castle with an Archer. Whereas an Archer will have 50 or 60 hit points and 8 attack, a Castle has 7000 hit points, and 12 attack (with Villagers in it or Archers even more!).
(I have skipped adding the section about Huns vs other civs due to the fact that this guide was labeled "Hun War Guide"
Step 1: Unit Control and other key techniques
Ever since Devil_Baron introduced the Hun war people became aware of the fun of it. Others like Jose and _reznor followed Baron and brought him some good matches, but Baron still domination, until the patrol tactic came out. Baron had a tactic was quite different than what is played today. He had 7-8 Trebuchets with a backup of 100 Cavalry Archers. This tactic was effective and secure, but slow and easy to raid. Jose, Reznor, Lance and IK made new strategies, which all countered each other, and later on ZWATTUH_PINO, my master brought in the "Pike Strategy". Let's jump head first into discussion these various tactics.
The Patrol: I haven't figured out yet who found the patrol bug in the game, but I do know that it works. My advice is to only use the patrol when you want some fast attacks, if you want to pressure your opponent, or if you just want to have a fast game with high risk. The patrol is easy to use, you simply select a whole group of units, press the Z key (default) and click behind the enemy's base. Your units will destroy every object they see until they reach where you placed the patrol flag. I also advise you, not to patrol with a group smaller than 30. I often see people do it, sometimes it works fine, against a four villager market player, but normally it's a waste of units. I have to warn you though, it's not always smart to patrol for three reasons:
If you went for a market start (especially with two or three villagers) it's not smart to patrol. It's better to wait until the opponent starts to run out of gold, then you attack, and you will overpower him with gold units.
When the opponent just waits and sits back, hoping for you to come and try his defense. If you patrol you'll send your units to certain death. If he sees you having trouble making gold units, because you sent your gold units to death, he'll attack and finish you off with ease.
When you play against a Castle builder (somebody who builds 5 or 6 Castles in a row). There are two ways to defeat somebody like that. Your first option is to make 16 rams and 5 Trebuchets and destroy his Castles. Or your second option is to just play defensive, while raiding his unprotected economy, since he will be out of stone to build more Castles somewhere else (near his economy).
The Patrol is only useful when you are reasonably fast, that means using hotkeys.
Gaining Mapcontrol: Due to the random nature of the Age of Kings maps, how you gain control changes with every game. You need to have imagination, and be able to think fast: Adept yourself to new maps everytime.
When you start the game, in addition to your standard builds, consider these points:
Seek gold places, stone places, big forests, or large empty places.
Try to imagine if you were your opponent, where would you build? Where would you make your wood towncenter?
MaJoR_IYIuRDeR, a good friend of mine was one of the best at this. He divided his army to gain map control. For instance, he took 2 cav archers from his main army and sent them into the nearest forest of the enemy’s base (where the enemy would chop his wood first). This was very clever, because when the enemy sent villagers to make a towncenter at his forest, about 70% of them were killed.
Options:
-Harrasing your opponent at unexpected places is just a small part of getting mapcontrol. When Jose cuts off his rush, he places his gather points of his stables at key points in the map. Now he only needs to build a castle, and he will have dominated one side of the map!
-SpaiN, whom became known with the 2 stable rush (followed by 8 barracks, 10 archery ranges) knew he had more food left then wood, therefore he built 3 stables on each side of his base, allowing him to make troops to cover each side of the map.
-Bravo used to do the following in mayanwar: He created an army of eagles and began to cross them all arround the map. Filling up space (scroll down) is important when you come to “unexplored” places. Let your enemy see that you’ve been there, and that place belongs to you. All part of mapcontrol.
Mapcontrol provides you with
ultra-dominance all over the map.
Almost all the gold and stone piles, extremely important at later stage of the game.
Raiding bases. You surrounded your opponent, keep raiding his economy, keep disturbing him, it will make him mad. Believe me!
Relics: Relics are a good option to optimize your gold resources which you normally (only) gain by mining. Despite their large influence on the gold pile, the relics are forgotten a lot. However, relics are a perfect source to get gold without creating pop-limit problems as they never stop giving you gold. The main idea is supposed to set up 2-3 monk houses, create monks and get those relics up. It's very important to place the monk houses, where you have to capture those relics inside, at protected, or "hard finding" mapplaces. Making a wall arround it or a castle beside it can avoid immediate efficient attacks, or worse takeover. That the importance of relics has been underestimated and still is being underestimated as I see few players taking relics during hunwars. It's a pity because they can have such a big influence on the game, especially later on when the gold piles are out.
The Hotkeys: When I was a 1700 rook, I use to play without hotkeys. I talked to some experts about it, and I thought it would mess up the fun of my game, because I only wanted to move the mouse. Anyhow, the way to become an expert is to use the hotkeys. Without using them your start will be very slow, which means defeat. I will give you an example of it. I am sure you all have watch some recorded from time to time. After 5 or 6 seconds, three stables will appear. As a rook you'd think, he has some kind of trainer. No it's simple, the guy who did that just pushed 'BL'-'BL'-'BL' (BL = stable by the way). Well as for me, I've changed the hotkeys because 'BL' is too far away for two fingers. The hotkeys I use are: Stable = 'BN', Archery Range ='BA', Barracks = 'BB', Castle = 'VV', Town Center = 'BG' and so on. When you click a specific building I wouldn't be astonished to hear you say "how do I make units out of them?" For that there have been hotkeys set available. While the Barracks is selected you push shift E for Halberdiers or shift S for Champions. For Archery Ranges I changed the defaults to shift R for Skirmishers, shift C for Cavalry Archers, and the Crossbowman remains Shift A. As for the Stables, shift N for Paladins, shift T for Hussars.
Unit Control/Micromanagement: The patrol is one of the possibilities of unit control, the others are the aggressive stance, the defensive stance and stand ground. Aggressive and defensive stances speak for themselves, put them on aggressive stance and they will engage the enemy as soon as they are in the units line of site, put them on defensive stance and they will defend themselves if provoked. As for the stand ground stance: if you put this stance on ranged units they will engage the enemy as soon as they are in range, if you put this stance on non-ranged units they will just sit their and die while being attacked. So you either had the choice of using patrol or using your own brain to control them. Immediately using patrol became very popular and powerful, but this did not mean that this was the only form of unit control used. Take for example Khalid. He patrols units in, but for instance, when he checks out incoming Paladins are going encounter his Cavalry Archers, he would pull them back. This is an example of unit control (micromanagement). Micromanagement actually comes from RM, because there you will learn the basics, pulling back, moving in, pulling back again etc. Some people who concentrate a lot on unit control, like Khalid are called scared asses, but I think they are very clever for the following reasons:
You will save a lot of units by unit control, because your opponent just patrols in his units without thought, while you work hard on your units to keep them alive. With micromanagement your pop-limit will remain, while your opponent's pop-limit will crush down like a Cessna.
When you are willing to put time into unit control, you must take some hours off work, and put them in unit study. For this you must go back a bit in my article around Chapter 2: Working on unit and civilization knowledge. It's very important to know which unit counters the other, that's the basic of micromanagement.
Filling up Space: When you are winning, in the middle of the battle, it can be clever to make some buildings (Castles, Stables Barracks etc) on the battlefield. If you just won some territory, you can show your enemy it will remain yours. If your attack falls into death, and you fear a fast comeback, you can slow it down by putting buildings in the places where you were once winning, because the enemy units will destroy these buildings first, so you have time to recover your army. When a match endures a very long time, it's also smart to build as much as you can. Try to build on the strangest places, even places you and your enemy are yet to claim or explore. This is smart because you can get your forces to different places of the map quickly, which will lead into map control. Being clever is always the key to victory, believe me.
Computer/Internet-advantages: The hardware you use to game can make an impact on your gaming. Differences between internet connections are ok; they are able to cause lag, but it has nothing to do with your start or speed of gameplay. It is your processor(MGHz) or memory (MB RAM) which explains the difference between people who start the game after 10 seconds, and people who start at 4 seconds after take off. These are external differences which cause unfair priviliges in my eyes for those who own a fast computer. They will have the chance to gain victory faster and more efficiently than somebody who is using an old Pentium 3 with 500-600 Mhz or slower. However, we cannot get rid of this difference, it's the money that will be the key to compete with other players. You cannot stop Fast Computer technology, and you cannot stop rich users, these are influences from outside: Don't make a big deal about it, you either choose to live with this unequal difference, or you buy a good/better PC compared to the others, which will give you that start advantage you wanted.
Step 2: All the Powerful Strategies
Jose's Heavy Cavalry Archer Strategy: Consisting in making around 6-8 Archery Ranges in the beginning with 7 Stables and 7 Barracks. The main purpose was to make few Paladins and Halberdiers but make a lot of Heavy Cavalry Archers, because generally the opponent would go for Paladins and Halberdiers, so he would be low on resources at 10 minutes. With the mass Heavy Cavalry Archer tactic (mass H.C.A's with some Halberdiers and Paladins), by the time the first battle was over not only would you take down the opponents army of Paladins and Halberdiers with speed and ease, it also would save you a lot of resources (especially food). In fact you would have so many resources left over that you could make another round of Heavy Cavalry Archers without having to worry about the opponent's army, because his economy would be weak and could not withstand another mass Heavy Cavalry Archer attack. So by the second wave of massed Heavy Cavalry Archers the enemy base would be open for destruction. The mass Heavy Cavalry Archer tactic consisted of two waves of attacks, the first to destroy the opponent's main army and still have enough resources to launch a second wave having the MAIN Town Center (the main town center is the original town of the game, the one where the players start building their villagers) as the target. But why the main Town Center as the target? Because 95% of the players build all his military buildings around the main Town Center, so it would destroy not only the main Town Center but also any buildings around it, leaving the enemy army production low and your opponent helpless. (Source: MFO Jose's Hun war Article
) Baron's Trebuchet Fury: The guy who invented the Hun war, Devil_Baron, was a strange guy when talking about his strategies in gameplay. However, it had its effectiveness. Baron's strategy contains the following. Make around 5 or 10 Trebuchets and back them up with roughly 60 Cavalry Archers. At start you make a lot of stables: which was a usual thing do to at that certain time. This is very generalized of course, but there are many ways to describe his tactic. Barons Trebuchet fury had a lot of positive aspects. For example, it was very powerful and it always had a nice target. Due to the fact that the Huns don't have Onagers, or Siege Onagers those Trebuchets couldn't be destroyed easily. In that period the RAM wasn't popular, which would now be the perfect counter to a massive Trebuchet attack. Baron's tactic had some inferior aspects too though. The main problem was that his army was very slow, he had to wait for his Trebuchets to unpack and pack time and time again. He could be raided easily, because of his slow army and he didn't really build a lot of Paladins after his start, so he probably wouldn't attack you from the sides. He did however build some Pikemen, to counter massed Paladins, but that was during the later stages of the game. Also he made a lot of castles in the middle: He always concentrated on the main army, as Pino later on did. I do not recommend you to use this strategy these days, because it would be countered easily with massed Paladins, Cavalry Archers and Rams!
Cows' Market: This strategy is not really one of my favorites, and I don't really like writing about this topic, but, especially for the rookies, it is very important to know this strategy, because even when just starting to learn the Hun war rooks can beat inters. This is due to a huge gold advantage, which can create extraordinary phenomenons. Imagine having 5000 more gold than your opponent. Who wouldn't want that to happen? The Market strategy is a very powerful strategy, because of the gold-units strength. Paladins and Heavy Cavalry Archers, defeat Pikemen, Skirmishers, and Hussars. The market strategy contains the following. As soon as the game starts, make 1 or 2 villagers and command your 3 villagers to make one market. While making a market it's smart to click on one villager that was building on the market, and create some stables (3 to 5), this is smart because the villagers start working on them right away. It makes you a lot faster, ask Cows if you need to.: As soon as the market is created, sell at least 4000 wood, 3000 food, and 2000 stone. The exact amount is based on your plan, it s not always the same, it's your choice. When you have sold your amount, delete the market while your villagers are working on the stables. Making only Archery Ranges and Stables can be powerful, but it's a bit risky. You will run out of gold soon, even though you had sold resources. Besides, Halberdiers are never wrong to make, so why not?
ZWATTUH_PINO Pikemen Strategy: In the times of PlatinSugar (we all know him) came a new strategy - the Pikemen Strategy. It consisted of building 8 to 10 Barracks in the beginning, and creating Halberdiers until you had a group of approximately 30, and then patrolling them in, it's very fast and powerful. The Pikemen strategy is known of not making PALADINS, the most feared unit in AoC. You'd say, "Why didn't he make them then?" That question is easy to answer, Pikemen are really cheap, and they only cost 35 food 25 wood, so you have a lot of gold and wood left (and even food), so you can make Cavalry Archers. The combination of Cavalry Archers and Pikemen devours armies consisting of Paladins and Pikemen. Also in the later stages, the Pikemen and Cavalry Archers don't cost that much, so you can fight really long without running out of resources. ZWATTUH_PINO needed this advantage, because economy had never been his strongest point. In fact he didn't make food until he ran out of it (that means having 0 food). However, he did make 2 early Town Centers for wood, and on gold, because he knew the Cavalry Archers would suck up his gold. Pino had, just like me, fast fingers, so the strategy suited him perfectly. It suited him so perfectly that he reached 2300.
Khalid's Rush Strategy: The three stable rush, combined with army control was perfected by CTW_Khalid, also known as I3iTe_VvolF. Khalid's rush is really powerful because of the amount of villagers he kills with it. By killing all the villagers you see, you slow down the building construction of your opponent, but please, don't stop your rush when the 15 queued Paladins are out, stop when the enemy has a good resistance built up. You could save those Paladins by letting them run into important places on the map, like gold mines or relics, or just to get map control. You could also add them to your army, so it will be stronger, and not wasted on your enemy's base. As soon as the first Paladins enter your enemy's base, and you don't see a market, or a deleted market (you'll see a light patch on the ground where the market once placed itself), it is optional to make the market yourself, but don't sell as much as in Cows' strategy. The good thing about this strategy is the all round play you'll receive with it.
I_Love_Rena's defensive market/pike strat: Rena considered the strength's and weaknesses of the market strategy and developed a variant which brought him a lot of success. Most importantly, he recognized that Cows market strat was able to hold off a rush, but that it also ran out of gold quickly. Therefore, rena developed the anti-rush/market strat. The main purpose is to play so defensively, that the enemy will patrol anything into death, and when the pop limit has been reached, to attack him with massive gold units which were purchased through market sales. You should play like this: go 4 vil market, sell almost everything, and place 6-7 barracks. When you are producing halberdiers try to set up many archery ranges (this is recommended because Archers are the best defensive units), and 4-5 stables because you will have a lot of food left at the end. Incoming rushing paladins should all die to the defensive pikes, and this is how the rush gets stopped. When the enemy is preparing his first patrol, you could prevent an early death (because you are slower than your enemy due to market) by building 3 Siege Houses: Supply yourself with 8-10 Siege rams. This is for the incoming patrol to crush on, so your main army is able take them all out. If you are pushed back a lot, try to make 2/3 castles in front of your base. This will help the defending process, or slow down the attack of your enemy. But beware: If you sell almost all and you made a lot of pikes, your wood will go to zero fast. Therefore you must build 2 towncenters on the wood quickly rather than to build 2 towcenters for the main gold. If everything goes well, you should overwhelm him easily, because he spent all his (few) gold on the patrol, while you only made some gold units, but mostly non-gold units. With all the gold you have left (and also a lot of food) you are able to create a huge (though expensive) army consisting of paladins combined with archers. For so far this strat is a great success; ReNa became 2342 with it.
If you combine these six strategies, you would be a perfect player in every aspect. All these strategies have their skills involved, and their weaknesses. If you can grab the positive aspects of each of the strategies, and mold them into one strategy, you would rule. I think the only ones whom could have the ability to do this, and had the ability were _Reznor and Elfanor, but that is my own opinion.
Step 3: Countering the Five Strategies that are Mentioned Above (Baron's excluded)
How to counter Jose's Heavy Cavalry Strategy: This strategy from Jose is just a part of his entire gameplay, I've played Jose six times now, and it contains more than only massed Cavalry Archers. The brilliant thing of Jose is his ability of getting map control. He will always rush you, sometimes with 5-7 (!!!!) Stables. This is very effective, but if you can stop it, he should be dead. Anyhow, he isn't that dumb to rush 15 times (15 paladins out of each stable), no he will stop at 7 or 8, and add his Paladins to the rest of his army or use them for map-control. Jose often sets his gather point at important map places, such as gold mines or close to his enemy's main gold etc. Well, how can you counter this Rush of his, the incoming pikes, the surrounding Castles, the massed Cavalry Archers and the map-control? It looks hard on paper, but it's doable. The dumbest thing to do would be going 3 villager market, or 2 villager market. You could go 1 villager market, or get it afterwards, but I advise you to take the market, at any costs, because if Jose's rush has ended, and he surrounds you with castles it's important to have a large stockpile of resources, otherwise you will be suffocated to death. Try to take out his Castle villagers, after he stops building barracks and stables etc, he will take those builders out to make a castle near his enemy's base. If you can take out those villagers, again at any cost, you might succeed, BUT don't forget his incoming Pikemen, and his massed Cavalry Archers which will appear later on. It can be very hard to defeat Jose, but you can do it, just be smarter and faster, which you always need in every match.
How to Counter Sugar's Barrack Strategy: In Jose's Strategy Articles he explains how to counter Pino which is an option, but that strategy is really only suited for him, and is not recommended for everyone else. Therefore here is "another" way to counter ZWATTUH_PINO, and in my eyes a better way. I made this one to counter the guys who took over this strategy which I also did, and still do. Since Pino taught me, I am the best guy to ask about the specialties and weaknesses of Pino's strategy. Here is the main idea. Kick off with three stables, then when the 4th villager comes out of the TC, get him to make like 10 or 12 Archer Ranges. The three stables should be ready by then, queue 15 paladins in each and gather them in front of your own base, don't attack with Paladins only, wait for the Archers to arrive. As soon as you have 30 military objects, patrol them in, and you should meet his Halberdier around the middle (if you are fast enough). The thing to do is select your Paladins, and spread them out. Run away with them, and let some attack. The Halberdier who are a bit clumsy will run behind your Paladins, while the Archers heavily harass them from all sides. The Barrack strategy of Pino, does not include a market, and because those Paladins and Heavy Cavalry Archers are very expensive, get the market to sell some resources in replace for others. The good thing about the Halberdier strategy of Pino's is that he will get pop-limit very fast, normally, but now when you kill a lot of units in the beginning (its all about the start) he will have a low pop-limit. I've tried this strategy a lot of times against MaYHeM (who also uses Pino's Barrack strategy, and plays it pretty good in my opinion) and others, it has always worked. I also tried this with SpaiN, but not on Pino yet.
How to Counter Cows' Market: Cows' market is the perfect way to start playing a Hun war, a lot say. This is because Cows' strategy is pretty easy to do, you just make a market, sell as much as you can and let the fury begin. I don't recommend you guys use the market strategy. Cows doesn't only build the market, he also raids you and make a good economy. Those skills took a lot of practice. For a rookie, who doesn't have the skill I recommend starting with a rush strategy or Jose's strategy. Map control, raiding and especially economy are the basic aspects you need to learn, not to be a selling at the market. A market player is easy to counter if he only has skill with the market, but if he has skills besides selling resources for gold it gets a lot harder. To beat a rookie whom uses market, it's quite easy, just rush him, patrol in fast, or build up an economy fast while getting map control. However, if you play an expert market player such as Cows, it gets harder. I have beaten Cows many of times, in fact he says I am his heaviest counter, and he is right. Nobody has a higher percentage of beating him consistently. I once had a 12 win streak against him. The question is "How?" I use two strategies against him.
Pino's strategy, patrolling in Pikemen fast with Cavalry Archers as a back-up.
Khalid's rush strategy
It requires speed, style, and knowing your opponent. As one of Cows' best friends, I know him very well. I will add some game examples to show you how you can beat a market, without long battles.
However, Cows has changed his strat: He perfected it into an almost undefeatable powerhouse strat. Cows has done a lot of changes lately: He makes 4/5 Stables now, and protect his villagers so well vs. a Rush that it looks amazingly hard to get one of them, and it is. After those stables finish their set up, he will make approximately 12 archery ranges. If all his buildings are built, and after he took some time to build those required 5 barracks, he will attack. This attack will be so powerful (Paladins will get in bravely to Cavalry Archers, while Archer and Pikes try to harass those Archers of yours) that defeat comes quickly. Cows has some weaknesses though: He always builds food and wood near his main base, map control is not his strongest point: Therefore you need to raid his sides, or better yet put some castles, or set the stables gather point there. Building 4/5 castles in the middle provides you from being immediately overpowered: You will have some time to set up your eco, and to re-organize your main army. However, it is not required to do this, unless you mined a lot of stone: Remember economic-town centers cost which could fall into zero after building that fortress in the middle. As Jose always said: Mining stone is so important. It gives you the freedom of building those castles everywhere you want, and as many as you want. Besides, most of the (old school) experts always mine/mined stone a lot.
How to Counter Khalids Powerful Rush: Khalid's rush might be the hardest to counter, especially when you play against Khalid himself. I've played him five times now (won 2, lost 3) and he has superb unit control. The rush is really annoying; getting your villagers killed is no fun at all. The two victories on Khalid I used the market strategy, one villager on the market, the other two on Stables or Barracks. Don't sell too much when playing against a rusher. You need other resources more than ever to build up an economy. The best thing to do against a rush, as I have already mentioned, is to market him. When his rush has stopped, he will patrol in fast, but if he fails to pressure you hard, you will win because of the gold advantage. Though, there isn't really a strategy that counters the rush. A rush always is commendable, it's never stupid to do. ZWATTUH_PINO's pike strategy might suit here. But if Khalid sees that the opponent whom is doing the barrack strat, he knows he won't make a market: which Khalid himself will get. I don't think the barrack strat will do good vs. Khalids rush as:
You cannot get map control
You are surrounded, and pressured all the time.
You can hardly make an eco, khalids paladins keep torturing you with his raids.
However, it's not always the strat which will have the advantage, its moreover the players who play the match. I will, after showing you this image of Khalid's start, give some URLs of good games, of different strats who fight each other.
How to counter I Love Rena's powerful defensive market strat: There are few who have the ability to crush down this market strat. A rush is eliminated so this would be your best oppurtunity: Make 3-4 stables + 10 archery ranges + 6 barracks and dont wait too long with patrolling in. Now make 4 Siege houses and make like 15 rams. Im not exaggerating... The first group of units which you just patrolled in will take out a lot. The important thing is, after you made those 3 stables you immediatly build the archery ranges(which will counter the pikes). Keep patrolling in, and dont let him build his castles/siege houses. Now take the sides, in each corner make 1 castle which will give you a bit of mapcontrol. Get the market and see if he sold all, if not sell some because your amount gold will decrease fastly. If everything goes well he will be pushed back heavily, without having a chance to hit poplimit, despite his amout of resources, while you have the chance to get relics, get your eco up and have the entire map for yourself. Don't forget to build 3-4 castles near his base, because if your patrol may fall at the end you will still have some time to recover your army.
For those who have potential and talent playing Hun wars, I hope this guide has been informing you quite enough to stress out the facts, differences, importance of raiding, economy and strategydevelopment.
Yours sincerely,
Joris Dekkers
I3loodI2ooK Huns war article for MFO, all rights reserved. Special thanks to:
- PaiPo (editor)
- Bravo (editor)
- blue_myriddn(editor + the guy who converted this into an MFO article, including lay-out + posting etc,)
These guys have been helping me a lot, thanx mates you were great.
Originally posted on 3/4/2002.
